


Surviving and living aren’t always one and the same, for even ghosts know to persist, but of the dawn, they shall never know again

by missWstockings



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, Gothic Romance, Mourning, Pining, Post-War, Tragedy, more then kind of a bad end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:48:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23362708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missWstockings/pseuds/missWstockings
Summary: The war has come to a close, and the triumphant have long moved on. But for those who are neither the winners nor the losers- but merely the bitter survivors, only their wounds remain with them, an aching reminder of the dreams and the betrayals that had been...
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault/Edelgard von Hresvelg
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Surviving and living aren’t always one and the same, for even ghosts know to persist, but of the dawn, they shall never know again

**Author's Note:**

> The war has come to a close, and the triumphant have long moved on. But for those who are neither the winners nor the losers- but merely the bitter survivors, only their wounds remain with them, an aching reminder of the dreams and the betrayals that had been...

Flame Emperor.

Hegemon Heratic.

Corpse-Eating Princess.

Those were the names that had come to bury and erase that of the last Hresvelg, spat like venom; they marred her legacy like acid.

And perhaps they were only right in doing so; perhaps her ideals were merely the lofty delusion of an arrogant princess, or the self-serving lies of a mad despot.

But in Dorothea’s heart and mind, walking through the woods near Garrag Mach, it would never be the late emperor she chose to remember, never be the smell of blood and ash.

“H-Hi Edie.”

Bergamont and a spring breeze were such far more pleasant scents after all.

“I...I’m back…,” she said in a voice that wavered and trembled with such an honest sorrow, that any of the most-acclaimed tragedies of the stage would gut themselves if only to call forth.

She almost smiled at the thought, that her best would be forever reserved for just this special person, as she brushed off some of the mud and loose leaves that had fallen over Edelgard’s grave--as ramshackle as it was, little more than a loose pile of stones arranged like a throne around an old teddy bear, it was still her grave.

It was still her.

Even if only for the sake of Dorothea’s mind.

“I Ahaha, I hope you didn’t miss me too much...”

It was a pitiful joke, but then again...

“I know it must get lonely here, but look! I have Bernie’s new novel! I can read it to you if you’d like?”

... Wasn’t all of this?

The wars, the crest, the church…

“Oh! And I heard Flayn’s cooking is really improving, maybe next time I could bring some and we could have ourselves a nice little picnic!”

Compared to all that, speaking to a dead woman’s grave like she was still here seemed almost normal…

“J-Just like we always talked about be-before.” 

“Ju…. just a cute little picnic date...”

…. Like she was here, with those bright, passionate eyes that always seemed to make Dorothea the centre of her world...

“Where there won’t be anyone to interrupt us...” 

… Like she was here, with her tiny smiles and giggles that always made that cold princess seem as playful and innocent as a kitten...

“N-Not even Hubie or Ferdie...”  _ Because they’re dead; they’re dead, Dorothea, and we all know why, don’t we now... _

“Just us alone...” 

_ That’s right, all alone, and just why is that, huh? _

“... I’m really sorry Edie, I’m really so sorry I ran away…”

Raindrops started to fall, streaks of water staining the book, the bear, the grass-

“But I promise I’m not going to leave you alone any longer,” the songstress said, her voice hollow and weak, yet filled with an iron certainty, “so please forgive me, okay Edie?”

Dorothea’s cheeks, curving past a strange, brittle smile--

“After all, we’re gonna have a lot of time for me to make it up to you, won’t we?”

_ ———————————————————————— _

The woods near Garreg Mach were haunted, they say...

That when you walked between those gnarled trees--older than Seiros, as the old folk said.

That sometimes, you’ll hear crying, as if a widow were mourning her brave beloved soldier.

Sometimes, you’d hear screaming, as if something or someone was lost in the most terrible and nameless agony.

But sometimes--

\--and this was the hook every ghost story needs-

\--the foolish romanticism that naive children and weary adults alike could never resist.

\--sometimes--

\--You can hear an angel singing.

The song was heavenly, they said.

It wasn’t a happy song; not at all.

But, oh, was it a beautiful one.

It was a song full of light--

\--full of warmth--

\--full of love--

\--and perhaps that’s why it’s a song no-one’s ever heard the end to.

For a song like that--

\--for a love like that--

\--wasn’t a song for anyone, not even Seiros or the Goddess, but for the two who sang it.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> please read the summary in the voice of the original gundam dub narrator for the best experience


End file.
